Mistress of the Black Dread

Chapter 1: New Beginnings

Waking up to the sound of her alarm clock beeping loudly in her ear, she grudgingly reached out her bare arm and slammed the button, shutting off the wretched noise. Rubbing her tired eyes, she groaned as she stretched out her tense muscles and sat up, throwing the covers to the side, the cold air hitting her bare legs.

Ryoko dragged her feet to the bathroom and the teenager almost screamed when she saw herself in the mirror. Her hair was knotty and resembled a bird's nest while her eyes looked sunken in, like she hadn't slept in weeks. Silently cursing the "stupid airplane" and the damn jet lag that came with it, she'd no doubt be suffering from sleep deprivation until her body adjusted to the new time zone - fun.

Pulling away the shower curtain, Ryoko turned the knob switch to nearly scalding and stripped out of her wrinkled black pajamas. Stepping into the shower, the steaming water flowing out the shower head instantly made her sigh in content as her muscles relaxed. Sleeping upright in those airplane seats was a surefire guarantee of soar neck and shoulder muscles in the morning.
Ryoko's shower was shorter than she would've admittedly liked but she needed to get to school soon so it was either sacrifice the shower or sacrifice breakfast and she chose the former.

After exiting the shower and quickly brushing her teeth she sauntered into her walk-in closet to put on her newest uniform, which consisted of a pink jacket with a blue ribbon on the chest, a collared white shirt underneath, a dark blue pleated miniskirt and instead of pair of stockings she wore her favorite ripped black leggings and black leather combat boots instead of those ridiculous clunky shoes that are absolutely impossible to run in. Ryoko tied her thick dark hair into a simple half-up half-down style with her stubborn fringe in the front as always, donning her red choker and swiftly grabbing her phone and schoolbag she strode out of her new bedroom and to the kitchen to grab her premade lunch and breakfast.

As per usual Ryoko's father was nowhere to be found, likely having left several hours before to go to work and not even bothering to leave so much as a single message before doing so. Not that it bothered the girl, she was far too used to this to care.

Snatching her lunch and to-go cup of coffee she headed out the door and to her new educational hell. Domino High.
Briskly walking down the street, Ryoko carefully followed the directions she had memorised from the previous day when she started snooping around her new area. She was glad that it was a relatively short distance between her home and Domino High, as that way it wasn't necessary for her to rely on any public transport. And besides, she liked walking and a little extra exercise would be nothing but beneficial to her since she no longer had a gym membership in Japan.

As she continued down the street many negative thoughts circled through her head. She wanted to make new friends, she really did and she promised herself that she would try her best to do so. It's just that she was unsure of what the outcome would be. What if they're no different than before? she thought to herself. No, I can't think that way. Shaking all the negative thoughts out of her head, she decided to at least try and remain positive if not for herself then for her little sister. After all, it was only natural for someone to feel nervous on their first day at a new school she reminded herself. It's all going to be fine. She coached herself, I doubt if there'll be any Plastics here and even if there are, no way can they be as bad as Sophie and her two sidekicks. She was making good time, not much further and she'd be at her new school with a few minutes to spare.